Reply to Increased class sizes for next year

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Council has more than enough in reserves to make a special appropriation to MCPS for $10million. They just authorized a $20mill special appropriation for corporate welfare.

“Look at that big spike in FY23-24.  Ending reserves are estimated to be $960 million at the end of FY24.  The county’s reserve target is 10% of revenues, but in FY24, reserves are supposed to be 14.9% of revenues – and 16.1% if all agencies are included.  And here is the kicker – that is despite the county spending a net $74 million out of reserves, the biggest withdrawal in nearly a decade.  The approved FY25 budget assumes a net $253 million decline in reserves, an astronomical amount that exceeds what the county withdrew during the Great Recession.“

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/06/10/is-the-party-over/

[/quote]

The problem is that the schools are actually relatively well-funded.  Montgomery County has a lot of affluent residents who prioritize education.  It’s not that MCPS can’t maintain current class sizes, it’s that they can’t maintain current class sizes AND do everything else they want. They make the cuts in teacher staffing because they know it will create community pressure to raise the budget and/or supplement it.  If they had kept the current teacher ratios but cut some of the admininistrative bloat and/or special pet projects instead, I don’t think there’d be this huge outcry that the county needed to provide more funding.

MCPS can and will always find more ways to spend money.  Short of writing it a blank check, I think it will always feel that the county allocations are insufficient.  Luckily, it knows exactly what lever to use to pry open the purse strings. [/quote]

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